Sermon Tone Analysis

A Man Who Walked With God

Introduction: Today is Father’s Day, a day to honor Dad for his special role in the family.

Someone described a father like this: “When you’re small, a father has two huge hands that lift you onto his shoulders and that put worms on hooks better than any other hands in the world.

A father is the man who sits at the head of the table and gets two lamb chops when you get one.

He is nice to be near when there’s thunder and lightning—or trouble.

A father understands when you think you’re too old to be kissed good night.

He’s the one who teaches you how to tie your tie, who buys your first razor, who gives you permission to take the car, and who comforts mom when aren’t home on time.

Sometimes he helps you fail algebra.

A father spends most of his life reaching in his pocket for money to give someone for something.

And his favorite words are, “No when I was your age...”

Garrison Keillor, on his “Writer’s Almanac” reminds us that Father’s Day goes back “to a Sunday morning in May of 1909, when a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd was sitting in church in Spokane, Washington, listening to a Mother’s Day sermon.

She thought of her father who had raised her and her siblings after her mother died birthing a child, and she thought that fathers should get recognition, too.

So she asked the minister of the church if he would deliver a sermon honoring fathers on her father’s birthday, which was coming up in June...and the minister did.

And the tradition of Father’s Day caught on, though rather slowly.

Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914; Father’s Day, not until 1972.

Mother’s Day is still the busiest day of the year for florists, restaurants and long distance companies.

Father’s Day is the day on which the most collect phone calls are made.

I recently read a true story entitled, “Priceless Scribbles.”

It concerns a father who touched his child’s life in an unexpected way.

A young boy watched as his father walked into the living room.

The boy noticed that his younger brother, John, began to cower slightly as his father entered the room.

The older boy sensed that John had done something wrong.

Then he was from a distance what his little brother had done.

The younger had opened his father’s brand new hymnal and scribbled all over the first page with a pen.

Staring at their father fearfully, both brothers waited for John’s punishment.

Their father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully and then sat down, without saying a word.

Books were precious to him; he was a minister with several academic degrees.

For him, books were knowledge.

What he did next was remarkable.

Instead of punishing his brother...instead of scolding, or yelling, his father took the pen from the little boy’s hand, and then wrote in the book himself, alongside the scribbles that John had made.

Here is what that father wrote: “John’s work, 1959, age 2. How many times have I looked into your beautiful face and into your warm, alert eyes looking up at me and thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal.

You have made the book sacred, as have your brother and sister to so much of my life.”

“Wow,” thought the older brother, “This is punishment?”

That hymnal became a treasured family possession...tangible proof that their parents loved them.

It taught the lesson that what really matters is people, not objects; patience, not judgment; love, not anger.

But the story that I like the best is about a dad who passed by his son’s bedroom and was astonished to see the bed nicely made up and everything neat and tidy.

Then he saw an envelope propped up on the pillow.

It was addressed, “Dad.”

With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:

“Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you.

I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Mom.

I’ve been finding real passion with Joan, and she is so nice.

I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes, and the fact that she is so much older than I am.

It’s not just her passion, Dad.

She really gets me.

Joan says that we are going to be very happy.

She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood—just enough for the whole winter.

We share a dream of having many children.

Please don’t worry, Dad.

I’m 15 and I know how to take care of myself.

I’m sure we’ll be back to visit someday so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your Son, Chad.

P.S. Dad, none of the above is true.

I’m over at Tommy’s house.

I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that’s in my desk drawer.

I love you!

Call when it is safe for me to come home...Oh the joys of parenting!

I’m sure we sometimes cause God stress...yet

He always loves us.

What great love we have from our Father in Heaven!!!

This morning I’d like for us to consider a certain father mentioned in the Bible that doesn’t get a lot of attention.

There are a lot of men mentioned in the Bible we know very little about and one of those men is Enoch.

The Bible tells us that he was Noah’s great grandfather.

He lived very early in human history.

He lived at a time of gradual degenerative morality…a time when people were rebelling against God.

When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah.

22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

23 Enoch lived 365 years, 24 walking in close fellowship with God.

Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.

There is much application we can draw from the life and witness of Enoch even though precious little is recorded about him.

1. Twice the record states that Enoch walked with God.

This statement indicates a companionship between Enoch and God.

It is much like the expression that comes later about Noah, “He walked with God and found favor in God’s eyes.

2. Enoch was a father.

3.

He lived in an era of decreasing morality.

4.

He was a man of exemplary faith.

Let us learn three important lessons about the life of Enoch this morning.

I. Enoch Walked with God amid in a Wicked Environment

Humanity lost much ground with the murderous action of Cain when he killed his brother Abel.

Cain’s life was filled with corruption.

Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants went down in history with this commentary on his life:

23 One day Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

listen to me, you wives of Lamech.

I have killed a man who attacked me,

a young man who wounded me.

24 If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times,

then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!”

From time to time we hear people say, “Let’s go back to the good ol’ days!”

That is a desire that needs clarification.

Which time in the past are we yearning for?

The time of Lamech and the generations that followed were far from good.

In these early chapters of Genesis there were two lines that became clearly marked.

Those in the line of Cain and those in the line of Seth.

The Bible says that at the time of Seth men began to “call on the Lord, by name.”

But gradually even the descendants of righteous Seth became corrupted by association and intermarriage with the line of Cain.

This led to the time that is recorded: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.”

(Genesis 6:5,6)

It was amid such an evil environment that Enoch lived.

But he decided that he would not go along with the crowd.